February 4th, 2010 - Open Knowledge — LiveJournal

Feb. 4th, 2010

Hart next tried offering these participants the choice between a low dose of meth and a small monetary voucher, at different times of day. The prediction was that, meth being a potent reinforcer, users would take it compulsively; what he found was that people would take it in the morning but not in the evening, when it would stop them sleeping -- using it to get through the day in the same way office workers self-administer caffeine; and if the monetary reward was large enough, they would pass up the dose. These findings call into question the notion that addiction is driven by the reward of a chemically induced euphoria and that meth -- legally prescribed to treat ADHD, narcolepsy and obesity -- is the destructive drug so maligned by the NIDA and the popular press. Hart's conclusion was that his subjects were indeed making rational choices about their drug use.

When they were presented [with physical exercise instructions] in an easy-to-read print font (Arial), readers assumed that the exercise would take 8.2 minutes to complete; but when they were presented in a difficult-to-read print font, readers assumed it would take nearly twice as long, a full 15.1 minutes (Song & Schwarz, 2008b). They also thought that the exercise would flow quite naturally when the font was easy to read, but feared that it would drag on when it was difficult to read.

Can you think yourself to orgasm? Does orgasm boost fertility? Is your clitoris just a mini penis? Can the dead get erections? Why does Viagra only work for men? Expanding on a talk she presented at the Ted Conference in 2009, Mary Roach, author of Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, will take us on a droll journey, with detours through barnyards and laboratories, through our understandings and misunderstandings of our sexual parts, their relationship to our minds, and the techniques of the scientists who have studied them.